The original pages of this newspaper are in very poor condition, so I am glad to
have the opportunity to make a more permanent record here. The illustrations that
accompany the article, unfortunately, are too large for the space at this time. But I
will try to describe them at the end of the article. I may be able to include more of
them at a later date.
I was surprised so many drawings appeared with this one story. With the availability
of photography today, we are so used to seeing first hand the events of the day and I
hadn't realized the extent that illustration had been used. I can only imagine the
lasting impression these drawings and the accompanying text made on those who
saw it. On particularly moving scene is the one of the flood waters bearing down on a locomotive.
That this one paper was carefully put away and saved as a remembrance from the past is
testimony to its impact at the time and the continued interest in the event.
As a child, I was told the story of the Johnstown flood by a survivor. M. Elizabeth
Morgan was a clerk in the Woolworth's Department Store in Johnstown at the time.
She spoke of that day in carefully chosen words and in quiet somber tones. Because
of my young age, I believe she didn't describe too many of the details. But, her story
made a lasting impression on me. As she shared her remembrance of that day, I
recall being very aware, for the first time, of how hard it must be for people to
recover from such a tragedy. How painful it was for her to rebuild her life. Although
this retelling was many years later, it was easy to observe the mark this disaster
made on her. This was but one of the tragedies she was to survive and I learned from
her a great deal about how to look at life, and for that I will be forever grateful.
The cause of the frightful calamity which recently visited the Valley of the
Conemaugh, in Pennsylvania, can be fixed without difficulty. The dam at the
reservoir of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club was improperly constructed.
Originally built to create a reservoir for a feeder to the Pennsylvania Canal, it was
abandoned when the canal became useless, and was then taken up by the
Sportsman's club, the relief-gates permanently stopped up, and gravel, clay and
mud used to raise the embankment to a height far beyond that of the original
structure.
While the wealthy gentlemen constructing the club were enjoying their summer
outings in the hills above, observant men- some of them practical engineers- living
in the valley below, predicted that an awful calamity would some day put an end to
the dam and to the fishing-club's existence. Among those who had such
forebodings was a mine-owner of Cambria County, whose property adjoined the
reservoir. He endeavored to induce the sheriff of the county to stop the work
when the sporting-club was rebuilding the dam. The sheriff consulted an employee
of the Cambria Iron Company, and declined to interfere because the employee
made a report favorable to the reservoir work.
It is certain that the residents of South Fork, Conemaugh, Woodvale, and
Johnstown, in the Conemaugh Valley, were in constant dread of the consequences
of the bursting of the reservoir. Repeatedly, during time of flood, reports had been
circulated that the reservoir dam had broke, and finally, when this report proved
to be true, the people were incredulous, and their incredulity is responsible in part
for the loss of life. Beyond these facts, it is in evidence that, before the bursting of
the dam, those in charge of the reservoir foresaw the impending disaster and
endeavored to avert it by opening a sluice-way on one side, and thus lessen he
pressure on the dam. They employed a large force of men in this work, and
pressed it in all possible haste. In spite of their efforts, however, the rising waters
reached the top of the dam, and on Friday afternoon, shortly after two o'clock, the
overflow began.
Everyone familiar with the construction of masonry knows that few reservoir
dams are intended to withstand this tremendous test of their strength. Reservoir
dams are usually constructed with sluice-ways, which are expected to offer
abundant relief without permitting an overflow. Overflowing waters, where the
depth approaches anything like that of the South Fork Reservoir, exert a
tremendous force, and operate with powerful leverage to throw down the heaviest
mason-work. When the South Fork Reservoir was built, it is said that large pipes
had been fixed in the bottom and so arranged that all the water back of the dam
could be released. In addition to these, a sluice-way was constructed at one corner
of the dam about a dozen feet below the top. It was here that the overflow found
vent. But the waste-pipes went to ruin, and were not repaired when the dam was
reconstructed and enlarged. The reason for this neglect of ordinary precautions on
the part of the sporting club is said to have been that its members feared the
escape of the fish with which the lake was stocked. Whether to not this club is
responsible for the damage remain to be seen. It has been asserted that an
indemnity bond of $3,000,000 was required before work was permitted to be
finished, but it is denied that the bond is on record.
During Friday morning, before the dam gave way, some of the employees at the
reservoir were sent, on three or four different occasions, to warn the people in the
valley of their danger, but the warning evidently was not so impressive as to
receive much attention. The final courier whose warning meant something, and
was listened to, lost his life in his effort to save the people of the valley. Mounted
on a great bay horse, he rode down the highway, passing from the reservoir
through Conemaugh to Johnstown, and shouted with all his strength,"Run to the
hills, the reservoir is breaking!" The people , who had again and again heard
similar warnings, but never from a affrighted man on horseback, were appalled.
Some believed him to be a wandering maniac, perhaps a victim himself of the
storm and the flood beyond. Other, and no doubt a majority, looking at the pale
face and the striking attitude of the excited courier of death, rushed from their
homes to the hillsides; while some were soon engulfed in the flood. Hardly had the
rider reached Johnstown Bridge before the great black wave of water, from
twenty to forty feet high, which, with accelerating speed, had rolled down the
fourteen miles from the reservoir, flung itself upon the doomed community and
almost swept it from existence.
Then followed a climax of appalling ruin, then followed a scene which, in its agony,
death, and devastation, has never had its parallel in this Republic. With one great
swoop over 3,000 houses of brick and of wood, hotels, stores, dwellings, factories
all were sent crashing, tumbling, and floating down the roaring torrent. The
seething mass, speckled with human creatures praying for life, was hurled against
the great stone arched of the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge.
Above the roar of the flood, the crash of falling timber, and the swirl of rushing
waters were heard the groans of the dying, the wails of the mangled, and the
agonizing cries for help from strong men, fainting women, and helpless children. It
was a maelstrom of desolation, a wilderness of death where not a flutter of the
wings of peace nor a sign of the hand of Providence were distinguishable.
Pennsylvania- The terrible Conemaugh Valley Disaster- Heart Rending Scenes at
Johnstown- Identifying the dead. From a sketch by C. Bunnell (About 12 men
building wooden caskets, covering bodies with blankets, and carrying caskets away.
Women kneeling down to lift loved ones into boxes.)
Pennsylvania- The Frightful Calamity in the Conemaugh Valley- Twelve thousand
persons perish in the pitiless floods- Johnstown, a city of twelve thousand
population, blotted out.-from sketches by J. Becker.
A race for Life- A gravel-Train runs away from the advancing flood., (inset)
rescued by railroad men.(A locomotive is racing down the track laid between high
rocks, high flood waters bearing down behind it. The inset is of railroad workers
pulling someone to safety from the roaring water.)
The great calamity strikes the Cambria Iron Works. The Great Calamity in the
Conemaugh Valley- Scenes and Incidents from sketches by Bunnell and others.(A
drawing of the Cambria Iron works, flood waters rushing over and through it. Large
groups of people are standing on the hillsides watching the scene as people on rafts and
hanging on to pieces of debris are being washed away in the foreground.)
The Railroad Bridge, Where a thousand Houses, piled together caught fire, and
were burned with their inmates. Sketch by J. Becker. (Bodies and debris are rushed
against the bridge. They are piled high and in flames.)
(This illustration shows the Pennsylvania Railroad line from Altoona, west to
Cambria.)
1. Altoona 2. Horseshoe Curve 3. Kittatinning Point 4. Crest of the Alleghenies 5.
Tunnel
6. Gallitzin 7. Cresson 8. Ebensburg 9. Reservoir 10. South Fork 11. Conemaugh
12. Johnstown 13. Stone Railroad Bridge 14. Cambria
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